Help! I transmigrated to a Beast World-Chapter 108: Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day, But They Weren’t Beastmen
It took exactly two hours of intense, migraine-inducing negotiations, three separate threats of "Sanitation Sabotage," and one very stern glare from Mo Yan to finally get all the Alphas to agree on a location.
They settled on a massive, sprawling clearing just on the southern border of the Northern Frost Wolf territory. It was perfect.
The snow was beginning to melt into the vibrant green of spring, a wide river cut cleanly through the eastern edge for their plumbing needs, and it was entirely neutral ground.
No one could claim it as their ancestral hunting ground.
Now, standing on a large, flat boulder at the edge of the clearing, Xin Yi looked out at the absolute sea of beastmen gathered before her.
There were hundreds of them. The elite Wolf warriors stood in disciplined ranks. The Azure Scale and Black Water snakes lounged fluidly, their vibrant green and black scales catching the morning sun. The Shadow Claw panthers were perched in the surrounding trees, while the brightly dressed Tiger warriors stretched their limbs, already trying to show off.
It was a logistical nightmare waiting to happen.
Xin Yi rubbed her forehead and pulled up her interface.
System, she thought. Be honest with me. We are building a central marketplace, a council hall, and at least fifty residential cabins to start. How many weeks is this going to take?
[DING! (⌐■_■)]
[Calculating Beastman muscle mass + Host’s architectural blueprints + Current levels of Alpha testosterone...] 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
[Estimated Time of Completion: 2 to 3 days.]
Xin Yi blinked. Wait. Two to three days? Are you malfunctioning? That’s a whole city sector!
[Host severely underestimates the workforce!]
[You have hundreds of magically enhanced, highly competitive, and severely sexually frustrated apex predators who want to impress you. If you told them to build a skyscraper out of mud, they would have it done by Tuesday.]
Xin Yi sighed. The System wasn’t wrong.
She rolled out her large slate map, balancing it on her hip. "Alright, everyone! Listen up!" she shouted, her voice carrying across the clearing.
Instantly, the chatter died down. Hundreds of eyes locked onto her.
"We are building the foundation of the Neutral Zone today!" Xin Yi pointed to the various marked areas on the ground, which she had spent the morning lining with white chalk. "Wolves, you are on stone masonry and foundation laying! Panthers, timber and lumber! Snakes, I need you on trench digging for the plumbing and aqueducts! Tigers, you are on clearing the brush and smoothing the marketplace terrain! We work together, we don’t fight!"
A few wolves started to grumble.
"DO EXACTLY WHAT SHE SAYS!"
Xin Yi jumped as Sha Chen’s booming voice echoed across the clearing.
The Arctic Wolf King stepped forward, his chest puffed out. He turned to his people, his eyes gleaming.
"No complaints! We know how to lay stone! We built the fortress! Let’s show these mud-crawlers and overgrown house cats why the Northern Frost pack are the true civilized people!"
Xin Yi groaned, slapping a hand over her face. "Sha Chen, please don’t—"
"Overgrown house cats?!" Feng Huang scoffed, stepping forward with a swish of his golden hair. The Tiger Alpha sneered.
"Tigers, let us show them what true architectural beauty looks like! Our section will be flawless!"
Hei Yan dropped down from a tree branch, landing silently on his feet. He crossed his arms, his panther ears twitching. "Timber is the backbone of any real city. Shadow Claw will have all the lumber processed before the wolves even lift their first pebble. We can build faster and better than any of you."
"Fools, all of them," Qing Lin hissed to Mo Yan, though his own emerald eyes were narrowed competitively. He looked at his Azure Scale warriors. "Dig the trenches. Do it faster than the cats can chop wood. Do not let them outshine us in front of my mate."
Mo Yan just chuckled, shaking his head, but he gave a subtle hand signal to his elite Black Water guards. "You heard him. Move."
And just like that, absolute chaos erupted.
But it was...productive chaos.
Xin Yi watched in stunned silence as the clearing transformed into a blur of supernatural construction.
Giant boulders that would have required a crane in her modern world were casually hoisted onto the shoulders of Wolf warriors, who jogged them over to the foundation lines.
Panthers scaled massive cedar trees, their claws stripping the bark and branches in seconds before felling the timber.
Huge snake beastmen shifted partially into their animal forms, using their massive, muscular tails to carve perfect, smooth trenches into the earth for the plumbing system.
It was a literal competition of speed and strength, all fueled by the intense desire to prove their species was the best.
"Beastmen are so exhausting."
Xin Yi turned her head at the dry voice. Walking up to the boulder were Ai Yun and Mei Lan.
Ai Yun handed Xin Yi a waterskin, looking at the frantic construction.
"Finally," Ai Yun sighed. "Once this marketplace and the new houses are built, we can just.....leave them to their measuring contests. We will actually have a neutral space to exist without someone growling over territory."
"I hope so," Mei Lan grumbled, rubbing her temples. The pretty female was wrapped in a thick shawl, looking thoroughly exhausted.
"If I have to spend one more night with a Tiger, I am going to throw myself into the river."
Xin Yi raised an eyebrow. "Is it that one Tiger warrior again?"
"Yes!" Mei Lan threw her hands up in the air. "He has been parading outside my window for three days trying to mate with me! He keeps bringing me dead birds! I told him I wanted cooked meat, like civilized people eat, but he just flexes his body, squawks, and flexes some more! It’s ridiculous!"
Xin Yi couldn’t help but laugh, patting Mei Lan on the shoulder. "Just give it a few days. Once the Neutral Zone food distribution center is up, he will have to actually buy you something nice instead."
"Hmm. I am holding you to that," Mei Lan muttered.
Xin Yi smiled and looked back down at the clearing. Her gaze softened as she spotted a small patch of calm amidst the storm of flying timber and crushing stone.
Underneath the shade of a large oak tree, far away from the heavy lifting, sat Xiao Long and Zhao Li.
The little Serpent Prince was sitting cross-legged, very seriously explaining the mechanics of his bone-knife to the loud, hyperactive Wolf pup.
"And then," Xiao Long hissed softly, his tiny fangs showing, "you stab the frog like this! Swish!"
Zhao Li’s wolf ears perked up, her eyes wide with absolute wonder. "Woah! Can you stab a fish too? Uncle Sha Chen says fish are just water-birds! Let’s go wrestle a water-bird!"
She excitedly shifted into her fluffy white wolf-pup form, yipping and playfully pouncing on Xiao Long’s long, black snake tail. Instead of getting angry, Xiao Long just giggled, wrapping his tail gently around her fluffy waist and pulling her into a tumbling hug.
They were so adorable, so completely innocent of the tribal rivalries that plagued the adults.
It was exactly why Xin Yi was pushing so hard for this city. She wanted a place where a snake and a wolf could just play in the grass without starting a diplomatic incident.
"Hey! Watch the chalk lines, you clumsy feline!" Sha Chen’s roar echoed from the center of the plaza.
"Watch your own feet, wet dog!" Feng Huang yelled back, effortlessly carrying a massive carved stone pillar on his shoulder. "You are stepping on my perfectly raked dirt!"
Xin Yi sighed again, her brief moment of peace shattered. She hopped down from the boulder, rolling her slate map back out.
"Alright, that’s enough!" she shouted, marching toward the center of the construction site. "Feng Huang, put that pillar down gently! Sha Chen, if you break that chalk line, I am making you dig the sewage trench!"
For the next ten hours, Xin Yi operated like an absolute dictator. She directed the flow of timber, approved the depth of the plumbing trenches, and constantly had to separate Alphas who were trying to out-lift each other.
By the time the sun began to set, casting a brilliant orange and purple glow over the Beast World, Xin Yi was covered in dust, sweat, and charcoal.
Her throat was hoarse from yelling instructions.
But as she stood back on her boulder to survey the clearing, her breath caught in her throat.
It was a miracle.
In just a single day, the vast, empty clearing had been transformed. The entire foundation for the central marketplace was perfectly laid out in smooth, interlocking stone.
The thick, sturdy timber frames for the first twenty residential cabins were already erected, standing tall against the twilight sky. The plumbing trenches were flawlessly dug, ready for the copper pipes to be laid down tomorrow.
They had built the bones of a true city.
The beastmen were exhausted, sprawled out on the grass, panting and drinking from waterskins, but they all looked at the structures with a deep sense of pride.
Even the rival Alphas were too tired to bicker, currently sitting in a loose circle near the river, silently passing around a massive leg of roasted meat.
[DING! ✧٩(•́⌄•́๑)و ✧]
[System Notification: Day One of City Building: COMPLETE!]
[Milestones Achieved: Marketplace Foundation (100%), Residential Framing (40%), Plumbing Trenches (100%).]
[Title Earned: ’The Divine Foreman’.]
[Host has successfully proven that the power of civilization (and sheer male competitiveness) can conquer any obstacle! Please rest, Host. Tomorrow, we tackle the roof tiling and the public bathrooms!]
Xin Yi smiled, wiping a streak of dirt from her cheek.
